Sultan Said:- Criminalising Ethnic Groups Doesn’t Help Any Of us

– The Sultan of Sokoto said crime is a human trait and can be found in any of the ethnic groups across Nigeria

– According to the Sultan, criminalising any ethnic group does not help any citizen of Nigeria or even the government

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, on Monday, September 9, suggested that there are criminal elements in every ethnic group across Nigeria.

The sultan also said that criminality is a trait found in human beings and should never be attributed to any ethnic group.

The Cable reports that the traditional leader while delivering a keynote address at the 2019 Ulefunta public lecture in Akure, Ondo state said Nigerians of Fulani extraction have been blamed for various conflicts in regions of the country.

Abubakar said the decriminalization of any ethnic group in Nigeria will not help anyone.

Sultan said: “The criminalisation of ethnicity and the ethnicisation of criminality, which we seem to relish and promote, will not benefit anyone.”

“The fact of the matter is that there are criminals in every ethnic group and in every nationality. It is a human trait not an ethnic trait. Some of this criminality is economic related and will abate once we create jobs and prosperity.

“I should not take this opportunity to call on the traditional institutions, the custodians of culture and values, the bedrock of continuity and resilience to raise our voice together against denigrating our diversity and criminalisation of ethnicity,” the Sultan said.

The monarch added that the globe is currently shrinking and the forces of globalisation have been with more powers than any one country, much less an ethnic group.

“We are all irresistibly drawn into a future with common cyber platform, common market and common destiny. It is therefore very important that the current strife among ethnicities is not going to benefit anybody, as it is counter-productive,” he said.

The sultan said majority of the crisis occurring in some parts and regions of Nigeria are be sponsored by politicians.